USA > Indiana > Posey County > History of Posey County, Indiana > Part 5
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"Where do you hail from?"
"Posey county, Hooppole township, Pumpkin postoffice, three miles behind the meetin' house."
"What's your cargo?"
"Fruit and lumber."
"What kind of fruit and lumber?"
"Hooppoles and dried pumpkin."
This was in the days when the iron hooppole had not yet come into use and the Southern States did not have the kind of saplings that made a good hooppole for their molasses and sugar barrels, and the article was imported from Illinois. It was a long and tedious voyage to New Orleans, the trip taking weeks, and even months to accomplish. Whiskey also was an important article of commerce, as this was about the only way any money could be realized from the grain grown in this section of the country. One of the earliest of these flatboat trad- ing and landing points was in Point township, at the mouth of the Wabash river. The first white man in the county, Thomas Jones, located here in the latter part of the Eighteenth century, and died at the place in 1826. Later a man by the name of Roach located here and his place became important as a commercial point, the flatboats often extending a mile in length along the river waiting for their cargoes. Mr. Roach died in 1848. Other early settlers at this point were Samuel Black, Nathaniel Miller, the Robinson family, Summers, and old keel- boatman, George Henchet, James Conner, William and Isaac James, a man by the name of Edwards, the Bacon family, 'Squire Love, Capt. Henry Stripe and the Greathouse and Dixon families.
5I
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
In the settlement of Posey county there were a number of colonies, the largest of which was the "Harmonie Association," of which George Rapp was the head. This colony came to the county in the winter of 1814 and 1815 and took land in Harmony, Lynn, Center and Bethel townships. Upon their relinquishment of their holdings the land was occupied by the followers of Mr. Owen, who also headed a commu- nity.
On September 25, 1815, a colony of forty-four persons from Cynthiana, Ky., located in Robb township, about a mile from Poseyville, near the Sulphur Springs. There are many pioneers on the list of those coming into the county previous to or shortly after 1820 that are not found on the land lists. Silas Parker located in Robinson township near the point where the New Harmony & Evansville road crosses the Cynthiana & Diamond Island road. Near him Ezekiel Dukes settled in 1820, also John, Jacob and William McMann. Other early settlers in the same township were Richard Edwards and the Grant family, south of Blairs- ville, Samuel 'Lee, a blacksmith, north of the same town, and Hugh Mc- Kinnis, David Murphy, Greenberry Radcliff, John Stephenson, John DePlaster, Frederick Christ and Herman Ryster near Blairsville. Near St. Wendel the early pioneers were Samuel and Steve McCollons, George Ramsey, James Haynes, Daniel G. Walson and Benjamin Garris. Hon. William Heilman and Mr. Weis were early German settlers. John Wil- liams, John Raller, John Mitz, Utley Mills, Samuel and Jonathan Wil- kins, William Hopson, Samuel and Daniel Barton and Thomas Denney were other settlers in this township. In Marrs township the following are among the first inhabitants: Alexander Barton, Moses Calvin, George Daws, John Caborn, William Hutcheson, James Benbrook, Ga- briel David, Hamilton Corson, James B. Campbell, Bedford Lynn, Judge Marrs, Lewis Benner, Michael Schrieber, John Vanwey, Wilson Jones, the Forris family, John Usery and others. In Center township there was Joseph Robinson, father of Jonathan and James Robinson, the Wade family, for whom Wadesville was named, John Parish, David Ball, the Wallaces, Smiths and Wilkinsons. Reuben Stallings brought four negro slaves with him-George, Jerry, Becca and Morning, but as slavery was not tolerated they were soon taken back. Prominent among the early families in Lynn township was that of Billy Alexander, who had three sons-William, John and Silas; John Noel, Henry Kivett, Samuel York, John Server, a Methodist class leader, F. and Edmond Bacon, the Goad family, John Turney and Elias Altizer.
The earliest industries were horse-power mills for the grinding of grain and the sawing of lumber, and the manufacture of whiskey. As many of the settlers were from the adjoining or near-by Southern States, nearly everybody raised a small patch of cotton, and cotton gins were also used. Wool was carded, spun and woven by hand, leather was
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HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
tanned and made up into shoes and harness at home or by a neighbor, with whom work was exchanged. Hides were frequently tanned on the shares. As in all early rural communities, it was the custom to make house-raisings, log-rollings, husking-bees, and, in fact, the whole neigh- borhood joined in to help in any work which the family alone could not well accomplish. These gatherings were the principal social functions of the community as well as occasions of labor, and corn-huskings were looked forward to with much pleasurable anticipation, and this labor, which was thus made a sport, was engaged in heartily by both men and women. At night-fall, after the day's work was over, the dance com- menced to the music of the bones and fiddle, and by the light of the tallow-dip. So the rigors of early pioneer life were lightened by a com- munity of interest and good feeling among the neighbors. The early farm implements were very rude. The "jumping devil" was used for breaking new soil. It was a home-made affair, fashioned after the man- ner of the single-shovel ploughs, only much stouter and heavier. Ploughs with wooden mouldboards were in use as late as 1850. In the earlier days. oxen were much in use to do the heavy work of clearing the soil and breaking the ground for the first time. The roads were so poor that they made the most practical animal for hauling for many years, as they have more strength and patience than a horse and were cheaper and more easily handled than the mule. Wheat was originally sown broadcast and covered by dragging a huge pile of brush over the field by oxen. In later years the wooden toothed harrow took the place of the brush, and finally this instrument was supplemented by the iron- toothed harrow. Up to 1840 wheat was reaped in the same manner that it was thousands of years ago when Ruth gleaned after the reapers. In that year cradles were introduced and were regarded as a wonderful in- vention. Corn was dropped by hand and covered with a hoe. As the settlers had to raise their clothing, flax also was grown, and the process of pulling, rotting, breaking, swingling, hackling, spinning and weaving was done by the women. Enough cotton was raised to supply the needs of the family, so that in all things these pioneers were independent of foreign articles, either for food, clothing, building or machinery, as most of the latter was also home-made. Even the guns used in defense and for killing game were made in Posey county. One of the early gun- smiths was Cornelius Foster, known as "Rifle Foster." He was a promi- nent character in early times, and was a very large man weighing 300 pounds. He was a preacher as well as gunsmith and used to preach in one denomination until trouble arose and then go to another denomina- tion and remain there as long as he could do so peaceably. He was sometimes a Methodist, and sometimes a Baptist.
Small horse mills were established all over the county in the first two decades of the century, and grain which had been threshed with a.
53
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
flail was carried to these mills on horseback. It was necessary to wait until the mill could grind the grist and the time was filled in by those waiting in such sports as rifle practice, jumping, wrestling, etc. Some- times one had to wait a whole day until those ahead of him were served, as the horse mill had a capacity of only twenty-five bushels per day. Each man in turn had to hitch his horse to the mill to grind his own grain. As distilleries were frequently maintained in connection with the grist mills, the form of pastime engaged in often took the form of a joy drunk. Later, near the close of the second decade, the horse-mills were replaced by water-mills, and still many years later steam mills were installed.
As we have mentioned, the clothing of the pioneers was cotton, linen and wool, home grown and home manufactured. Their food at first consisted in wild game, of which there were deer, turkey, bear and smaller game, grain and vegetables and wild fruits. In course of a few years as the timber was cleared and the wild game and wild fruits disappeared they were replaced by domestic meats and orchard fruits. Wolves were so plentiful as to be a menace to sheep, often attacking them in day- light. At night the sheep had to be locked in a secure enclosure for safety. Wolves were hunted by riflemen, trapped or caught in pens.
There was practically no home market for anything raised in this section in early times. For that reason the perishable goods that could not be taken to other markets in flatboats brought an extremely low price. It was nothing unusual for a person to walk several miles to the nearest town carrying a basket of eggs and butter, receiving for the former 614 to 121/2 cents per dozen and for the butter about that much per pound. Pork was always killed at home and brought from 11/2 to 37/2 cents per pound.
The horse-mills have been referred to; however, there was a time before the introduction of these mills when the settlers had to grind the grain by hand. The methods employed take us back to prehistoric times. After sowing the grain by hand, covering it with a brush, reap- ing it with a grain hook, beating it out with a flail, cleaning it by running it through a sieve and allowing the air to carry away the chaff by an artificial current made by waving a sheet over the grain, it was then ready to be ground. A mortar was made by hollowing out a rock, or a big stump. A heavy wooden pestle was shaped to fit the mortar and used to crush the grain. When the meal was fine enough it was run through a buckskin sieve. It is small wonder that very little wheat was grown for market considering the laborious methods employed to produce it. As corn required so much less work it was grown in pref- erence to wheat, even for family use. The use of the mortar required a man's strength, but often when the women wanted to use some of the early-ripened ears of corn before the harvest had been gathered
54
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
they would husk a few ears and manufacture the meal by the use of what looked to be a huge nutmeg grater. This grater was made by driving nail holes in a piece of tin and fastening it to a board. As corn was the easiest grain to raise, so pigs were the least expensive animals, and the diet of the early settlers may be said to have consistd largely of corn bread and pork, or at least these were the mainstay in the way of food stuffs.
The prices of food stuffs not only shows the lack of demand for the articles, but also the scarcity of the "coin of the realm." The money of those days current in Posey county was in silver 614, 1212, 25 and 50-cent pieces, with only an occasional dollar. A good farm hand 1e- ceived $8.00 per month, and according to the prices of what he raised he was lucky enough, for wheat brought only 40 cents per bushel, in contrast to the dollar wheat of these times, which does not require one-hundredth part of the work ; corn was 1212 cents, and was exchanged for whiskey, bushel for gallon.
Posey county, as well as most of the State of Indiana, was covered with an excellent and valuabe growth of timber. Had this wood been left growing the land would now be worth several times its present value, but as several generations have in the meantime been able to subsist upon it, which would have been impossible had it been left in virgin forest, it has been worth more to the race by having been cleared. Every tree, no matter how fine a growth, or what the variety of wood, was marked for destruction by the pioneers who could see nothing in trees at that time except an enemy usurping the ground which they needed to raise bread. So every tree was felled or "deadened," and only sufficient of the wood was reserved to fence the clearing, the rest being burned up. In this way valuable black walnut, white oak and other wood was destroyed, which, if preserved to the present day, would have been worth untold millions of dollars. We have mentioned the early saw mills, which were built along the Wabash and Ohio and other streams, but for a number of years before they came into use the lum- ber was sawed by hand with a whip-saw. It seems a shame to have wasted all these millions of feet of the best lumber on the continent, but as there was then no market for it, and as the settlers needed the land it could not have been avoided. The original price of land, tim- ber and all, was $2.00 per acre. It went back to $1.25 per acre, while rich bottom land was worth about 121/2 cents.
Hard as the facts of existence were in Posey county a century ago, the early pioneers did not forget that the spirit must be satisfied as well as the body, and scarcely had they erected their own rude dwellings than they began to think of churches and meeting houses. In the ab- sence of all forms of entertainment with which we are familiar, the church was a greater factor in the life of the community than it is at
55
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
present. While we find it impossible to attend church if the weather is the least bit inclement, or the distance more than a few blocks, the pioneers often rode ten, twenty and even forty and sixty miles over rough roads, perhaps behind an ox team, to attend the occasional ser- vices held in the little log churches of those times. Here it was that the deacon or pastor lined out the hymns and the congregation sang with their whole hearts, and listened to the rigid interpretation of the Gospel, which, though it seems to us of this day a narrow interpreta- tion, was none the less sincere, and made for good citizenship. Bap- tists and Methodists predominated, although there were the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Disciples, and other denominations in the some parts of the county. Perhaps the most historic point for early-day re- ligion is Smith township. There was a log church at Liberty, about a mile northeast of Cynthiana, by the Disciples, in which Elders Elijah and Moses Goodwin held forth, denouncing the mourners' bench and the idea that anyone did or could "get" religion, declaring the doctrine of "good works" as the road to heaven. But in spite of this people could and did get religion at the Cumberland church, which was lo- cated four miles southwest of Cynthiana and christened Mount Pleasant. A large log church wa's built by the Cumberland organization at this point about 1820, about which a camp ground was laid out in a large square. All around this square small log houses were built for the accom- modation of the campers, who flocked there in great numbers from far and near to enjoy the exhilaration and ecstacies of religion as preached and experienced in that manner. In those days it was not alone the beau- ties of heaven and everlasting bliss that was presented to the people, but the horrors of hell were vividly pictured, and sinners were called upon to flee from the wrath to come, and this proved often to be more potent than the hopes of heaven. The greatest revivals in this section of the State were held at this old camp ground, and it was not unusual for hundreds of voices to be heard at once supplicating for mercy before the throne of grace. At times the excitement became very intense, so fully were the minds of the people concentrated upon one idea, and so completely were they under the mental influence of the minister. Often numbers of people at once were seized with strange hallucinations, de- claring they could smell the burning of brimstone, see the devil, or the angels, or Christ, and the unreal mental picture no doubt was real to them, although we now explain it on a simple psychological basis. Some were seized with nervous fits and would fall headlong upon the floor jerking violently. The jerking fit spent they would relapse to a com- atose state, in which they would remain for half an hour, sometimes for a much longer period, and not understanding their own mental and ner- vous constitution, believe such experiences were the working of the Holy Spirit. However, the people of those days enjoyed it, as do the less
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HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
intellectual of our own day, and it is, perhaps, justified on those grounds. and on the grounds that the pastors and congregation were in earnest. Some of the noted camp meeting preachers were Thomas Smiley, "Uncles" Tommy Wilson, Johnnie Shelton and 'Squire James Wilson. The pulpit in that old camp meeting house was typical of early day pul- pits, and would be a great curiosity to church goers of the present day. It was built about four feet above the main floor and was reached by a flight of steps on either side. The dimensions were about 6 x 12 feet, and it was boxed in to the height of four feet above the pulpit floor, leaving a small opening on either side for entrance. Thus, unless the preacher was an exceptionally tall man, only his head and shoulders were visible to the audience.
And while the pioneers were wrestling with nature for physical ex- istence, the intellectual training of their children was not wholly over- looked. As soon as there were enough intellectual and progressive people in a neighborhood who believed in education to pay a teacher even a meager living a subscription school was started. The log build- ing was erected by the fathers who were interested in giving their children a chance in the world, and the teacher took pupils at the rate of about $1.50 per term for each pupil, and boarded around among the families represented, staying two or three weeks at each house, free of charge. Each family felt honored to entertain the teacher and his stay was the event of the school year. The term lasted three months and the course of study was the three "R's," with perhaps a little geography or history. In those days when society was not as well organized as now the teacher was often expected to act the part of prize-fighter as well as instructor, and often had to "lick" the school before he could have an opportunity to teach them anything. On the other hand, some teachers were a little too free with their use of the "gad," and much suffering was endured for trifling offenses, and school was looked upon by many as a place of torture and punishment, and only those ambi- tious for an education, or those who wished to torment the teacher would attend. Hardly a person can be found in the present day that will not admit the advantages of an education, or to some extent avail themselves of their educational opportunities, but in those days there was a large class that thought education beneath them, only intended for people too lazy to work, and this class was large enough to consti- tute no little discouragement to the pioneer teacher. The early school houses were of home construction throughout and followed one general plan. The first school buildings were 12 x 14 feet, the later ones were 20 x 30 feet, or larger, with ceilings about eight feet high. The walls were built of round or hewed logs, the cracks between being chinked or daubed with mud. The floor was of puncheon, which was split logs, and the roofs of boards held in place by rib poles. Sometimes the roof
57
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
was made of shingles instead of boards, and held together the same way. There were two fire-places, one for the use of the boys and the other for the girls. They were built of hewed or split logs notched so as to be held securely in place. This was liberally daubed with clay for protection from the fire. The fireplaces were 4 feet wide, 4 feet deep and I0 feet long. The chimneys were made of poles or sticks and covered thickly on the inside with mud. The doors were of split logs pinned together and swung on wooden hinges. There were usually two win- dows, one on each side of the room, and these were about 20 feet long and covered with. greased paper instead of glass. The seats were made of split logs, the split side being placed uppermost, and pegs driven into the bark side for legs. They were without backs. The writing desk was usually of split logs and fastened to the wall on one side of the room. The spelling book was the principal text. and writing was done with goose quill sharpened.
A number of incidents are told which shed light on the customs and practices of the early schools. It was the custom on the day before any great holiday, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, to make the teacher treat, or if he did not treat to force him to do so. The attempted en- forcement of this rule nearly cost the life of a teacher by the name of Gages, who was teaching in the Aldridge settlement. On his refusal to treat the boys promptly set upon him and carried him to the nearest pond, where they broke the ice and dipped him under a few times. Chunks of ice were placed on his bare bosom, but he was rescued before anything serious happened.
The first schools were supported by the parents of the pupils, but about the year 1822 a seminary fund was provided by the General As- sembly of the State in an act whereby certain fines, forfeitures, penalties, etc., were to be applied to a fund to maintain a county seminary of learning. It was 1833 before an amount was raised in Posey county sufficient to begin the erection of a building. It was located in Mt. Vernon, and finished in 1843. (See School History in this volume.)
One of the first things that had to be provided for by the early set- tlers was defense, for in the early settlement of this county it was still claimed by the Indians, and numerous depredations throughout the country by the red foe prompted the pioneers in 1809 to build a fort or blockhouse as a common place of refuge in case of attack or raid by the Indians. This fort was located in Harmony township, about a mile southwest of Stewartsville on land owned at that time by John Cox, nicknamed "Doublehead." It was 30 x 30 feet, built of round logs and two stories high. The upper story was projected about a foot out from the lower story and in the upper room v-shaped loopholes were sawed in the logs, some with points downward and some with points outward, thus affording a view of the enemy both when approaching the fort and
58
HISTORY OF POSEY COUNTY
when near the walls. The blocks sawed out in making the loopholes were kept to plug them up again after firing at the enemy, leather straps having been fastened to them to facilitate handling. There were no windows, the light being admitted through the holes. There was one door downstairs and one leading to the second floor. Tradition does not tell of any engagements, although the fort was frequently used by the neighboring families during trouble with Indians in their vicinity. The families using the fort most frequently were those of John Cox, Moxey Jolly, Thomas Robb, V. Leavitt and John Wallace. Mrs. Sarah Cox, wife of John Cox, often had thrilling experiences during her hus- band's absence from home. On one occasion when he had gone to Vincennes for a load of salt and she and her little children were left alone in their cabin in the woods the Indians became troublesome and visited the cabin in war paint. With rare courage and presence of mind Mrs. Cox received them with great respect, invited them in and set cakes and other food before them, and they went away without doing any harm. Upon another occasion when alone she found upon arising in the morning the tracks of a huge bear in the door yard. She armed herself with a butcher knife and tracked the animal to his hid- ing place and found him in a hollow log. Having no gun herself she called some of the neighbors to kill the bear. Mr. Cox at this time was making a journey on foot to Terre Haute for seed corn, showing the amount of physical labor that was often expended to gain a point. Another stockade was built in 18II. This was on Black river near Shaw's Ford. It was 50 x 50 feet and built of split logs. The timbers were set on end in a deep trench, the split side being turned to the out- side. The families of the neighborhood used to gather in this fort whenever an Indian uprising startled the country.
Until 1837 military duty was required of every man and musters regularly held. There were the company, battalion, regimental and brigade muster. These musters were held at the homes of the different officers and the following is a sample of the orders issued calling the men together :
New Harmony, February 26, 1826. Regimental Order.
The officers of the companies will appear with their com- mands at the house of Robert Randolph, on the 16 day of October, 1826, for a two days' regimental muster. All commissioned officers must appear in full uniform. Bat- talion muster will be held at the house of Joshua Overton.
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